Pages of Note

Monday, April 18, 2011

Eyes ache in swollen skull

Don't everyone jump on the revolution train at once. Form an orderly line and be patient. There's room for you all.

Thomas Paine's work was harder than it looks. I imagine that when he had those "Common Sense" pamphlets printed out in some seperatist basement with lookouts watching for British spies that people couldn't wait to get their hands on them to 'hear the news'. sure. And maybe they were because gossip over the fence wasn't exactly the fastest way for opinions to spread. But then again, how many people were publicly voicing their opinions in 1776? How many newspapers were there? How many news agencies? How many media outlets? Tens of Thousands like today?

Today, it takes serious work to get heard. And then you will most likely get no response. If I were to wait for a team of Wolf researchers to get together to visit Ellesmere Island then I'd grow old and gray first. The avalanche of ideas is more than anyone can process. It is better to trust your instincts and if not swim with the pack at least swim in the same direction as the pack at a safe distance. I can't argue with that because until I have a plan that I can sell like McDonalds fish sticks then no one will pay attention. Wolves, Bison, Climate, Haitians, Vietnamese sweat shop workers: It's gotten to the point where you can't step outside without endangering the rare June Bug or some kind of migratory bird. Everything we buy is shipped from a sea away. Every forkful of food travels 1500 miles. At this point we are closer to the complete disaster I predict if nothing changes than to something stable that includes living arctic wolves. And change happens always a little too late for something.

The ride will be interesting that is for sure.

With gas prices increasing by the day I'm formulating new plans to reach Labrador. It would cost less to outfit a motorcycle and go north than to drive my V8 van. It would cost even less if I rode a bicycle. There may not be a financial solution to this problem. Simplify. That's what Thoreau said.

I've pondered the theory of 'time saving devices' and always come to the same conclusion: They don't save anyone any time but they allow you to do more work in the time that you are working. But since proportionally prices and wages have stayed tightly together these time saving devices are a wash. I was thinking of the floor jack and circular saw. If you spend twelve hours using a hand crank pulley floor jack in 1930 to move 20 pallets...and you flash forward to 2011 and you spend twelve hours using a hydraulic floor jack to move 200 pallets then you have not saved yourself any time but you were able to move more cheese. I'd say this means more money for your boss but from what I've seen they spend just as much time dealing with a bigger business. Consider this, in 1930 if you could live on your wages and in 2011 you were losing money on the same day's work...that's when the whole theory of 'time saving devices' crumbles. It completely crumbles. I would say that I'm one of the few people I know who has actually cashed in all the time he supposedly saved with washing machines and pre-churned butter. That is the only way I can learn to play piano and guitar at 40 years old.

But when you finally add in the environmental consequences of these time-saving devices...and the amount of real time that is going to be spent to combat their ill effects, well, then you get into the biggest joke of all time, the biggest fraud that Henry Ford ever pulled off. It's like giving your backpack to a Sherpa and saying, "Look! I don't feel the weight at all! I must be special!" My conclusion is that as soon as I see something that "saves time" I bail out. The only way to save time is by walking in a straight line instead of a crooked line. Or just staying where you are. Watch a squirrel or a wolf. They don't speed in circles the way humans do driving aimlessly for the opportunity to rest. They only do what is necessary. They practice economy. It's my life's goal to live as economically as a wolf, and to do that I need to study the wolf. My books will not protect me from death but my computer is the source of much grief to me...so which is my friend?